Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
The two public health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world’s health are clean water and vaccines. Professors Susan Goldstein and Haroon Saloojee assess South Africa’s child vaccination programme.
Why are childhood vaccinations so important? What are some essential ones?
A recent study published in The Lancet estimated that since 1974, 154 million lives have been saved by immunisation, most of them children.
A 2016 study of low- and middle-income countries found that for every dollar invested in vaccines, the return on investment was estimated to be US$44, considering broader social and economic benefits.
Childhood vaccines are most effective when they are administered to children at the right age, and with the recommended dosage, as children are susceptible to certain diseases at certain ages.
As an example, polio occurs most frequently in children below the age of five. Five doses of polio vaccinations are recommended, starting at birth.
As the most contagious and fast-moving of the vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is often described as the “canary in the coalmine”: a warning of other disease outbreaks that might spring up where there are gaps in vaccination coverage.
How does South Africa fare?
A case study done in 2011/2012 found South Africa spent US$131 million on basic child vaccine procurement, less than 1%-1.5% of public health expenditure and comparable to Latin American countries known for early vaccine adoption. In 2023 new vaccines were included in the routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation to the value of US$194 million.
We do spend appropriately on vaccines.
South Africa has an excellent immunisation schedule with protection offered against 11 diseases.
In 2019, a national household immunisation survey, the first such survey done in two decades, provided the most detailed picture of South Africa’s vaccination programme that we have. The survey screened almost 2 million households and found 84% of babies had received all their shots by the time they turned one.
Although these rates may seem good, they fall short of the 90% target set by the United Nations. They are also lower than in several other sub-Saharan countries, as this graph shows.
A greater concern, however, is the disparity at the district level. For instance, Sekhukhune in Limpopo province had a coverage rate of just 53%, meaning almost one in two children were not fully immunised. Ten other districts had coverage rates below 75%, meaning that at least a quarter of the children were not fully protected.
What is preventing the country from achieving the 90% target?
In the national survey the main reasons for children not being fully immunised were related to the health service:
the vaccine was out of stock (29%)
the child was ill and not offered a vaccine (12%)
caregivers did not know that the child was due for immunisation (19%)
the caregiver forgot that the child had a scheduled immunisation visit (6%)
there was no-one to take the child to the clinic (9%).
Other factors include:
negative interactions with healthcare workers – these can deter caregivers from taking children for their vaccines
waiting times
the dynamics within families – for example, adolescent mothers and elderly caregivers might have difficulty getting children to clinics.
Vaccine refusal by parents for religious or other reasons existed, but this was infrequent (3%).
What needs to be done?
To protect children better, Unicef’s Immunization Agenda 2030 recommends a “people-centred” approach:
ensuring all healthcare workers are skilled at administering inoculations, and not missing opportunities to vaccinate a child whenever they visit a health service
avoiding vaccine shortages by electronically linking central pharmacies to facilities
listening to communities to understand their attitudes towards vaccines and their experiences with health workers at clinics, both good and bad.
In South Africa districts with low coverage warrant special attention, such as increasing access to immunisation services. This could mean opening clinics on weekends or evenings so that working parents could bring their children to be vaccinated.
Vaccinations are the safest method to protect children from life-threatening diseases. We need to ensure that every child gets them.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
The two public health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world’s health are clean water and vaccines. Professors Susan Goldstein and Haroon Saloojee assess South Africa’s child vaccination programme.
Why are childhood vaccinations so important? What are some essential ones?
A recent study published in The Lancet estimated that since 1974, 154 million lives have been saved by immunisation, most of them children.
A 2016 study of low- and middle-income countries found that for every dollar invested in vaccines, the return on investment was estimated to be US$44, considering broader social and economic benefits.
Childhood vaccines are most effective when they are administered to children at the right age, and with the recommended dosage, as children are susceptible to certain diseases at certain ages.
As an example, polio occurs most frequently in children below the age of five. Five doses of polio vaccinations are recommended, starting at birth.
As the most contagious and fast-moving of the vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is often described as the “canary in the coalmine”: a warning of other disease outbreaks that might spring up where there are gaps in vaccination coverage.
How does South Africa fare?
A case study done in 2011/2012 found South Africa spent US$131 million on basic child vaccine procurement, less than 1%-1.5% of public health expenditure and comparable to Latin American countries known for early vaccine adoption. In 2023 new vaccines were included in the routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation to the value of US$194 million.
We do spend appropriately on vaccines.
South Africa has an excellent immunisation schedule with protection offered against 11 diseases.
National immunisation coverage for children under 1 year. District Health Barometer.
In 2019, a national household immunisation survey, the first such survey done in two decades, provided the most detailed picture of South Africa’s vaccination programme that we have. The survey screened almost 2 million households and found 84% of babies had received all their shots by the time they turned one.
Although these rates may seem good, they fall short of the 90% target set by the United Nations. They are also lower than in several other sub-Saharan countries, as this graph shows.
South African vaccine coverage of one-year-olds compared to other sub-Saharan countries. Unicef 2023
A greater concern, however, is the disparity at the district level. For instance, Sekhukhune in Limpopo province had a coverage rate of just 53%, meaning almost one in two children were not fully immunised. Ten other districts had coverage rates below 75%, meaning that at least a quarter of the children were not fully protected.
What is preventing the country from achieving the 90% target?
In the national survey the main reasons for children not being fully immunised were related to the health service:
the vaccine was out of stock (29%)
the child was ill and not offered a vaccine (12%)
caregivers did not know that the child was due for immunisation (19%)
the caregiver forgot that the child had a scheduled immunisation visit (6%)
there was no-one to take the child to the clinic (9%).
Other factors include:
negative interactions with healthcare workers – these can deter caregivers from taking children for their vaccines
waiting times
the dynamics within families – for example, adolescent mothers and elderly caregivers might have difficulty getting children to clinics.
Vaccine refusal by parents for religious or other reasons existed, but this was infrequent (3%).
What needs to be done?
To protect children better, Unicef’s Immunization Agenda 2030 recommends a “people-centred” approach:
ensuring all healthcare workers are skilled at administering inoculations, and not missing opportunities to vaccinate a child whenever they visit a health service
avoiding vaccine shortages by electronically linking central pharmacies to facilities
listening to communities to understand their attitudes towards vaccines and their experiences with health workers at clinics, both good and bad.
In South Africa districts with low coverage warrant special attention, such as increasing access to immunisation services. This could mean opening clinics on weekends or evenings so that working parents could bring their children to be vaccinated.
Vaccinations are the safest method to protect children from life-threatening diseases. We need to ensure that every child gets them.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Projects from 4 UK organisations will share £2m in the inaugural AUKUS Pillar 2 Electronic Warfare (EW) Innovation Challenge.
Through AUKUS Pillar 2, Australia, the UK and the US are pooling the talents of their defence sectors to develop at pace the delivery of advanced capabilities. Four UK companies have been selected by the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) to receive a share of the funding to develop solutions in electromagnetic targeting and protection.
The competition was run to find low cost, disposable, high volume and highly autonomous electromagnetic technology that can detect enemy actions or protect against them.
The four successful UK organisations to receive research funding are:
Amiosec Ltd
Autonomous Devices Ltd
Roke Manor Research Ltd
University of Liverpool
The trilateral AUKUS EW Challenge was run as 3 individual competitions by DASA in the UK; the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA), in Australia; and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in the US. The EW competition was the first in what will be a series of AUKUS Innovation Challenges, setting the template for future advanced defence technology competitions run by the 3 partners.
National winners of the 3 EW Challenge competitions were announced at the AUKUS Defence Ministers’ Meeting on 26 September in London by UK Secretary of State for Defence, the Right Honourable John Healey MP; Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, the Honourable Richard Marles MP; and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. The three Defence Ministers together emphasised the value of the collaboration to a free and open Indo-Pacific, with the potential to enhance joint defence capabilities, ensuring national, regional and global stability.
The 3 innovation competitions called for proposals to identify electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) technology solutions to help give the AUKUS nations a strategic edge in targeting and to provide protection against adversarial electromagnetic-targeting capabilities. EMS is a heavily congested, contested, complex and competitive environment and there is an increasing need for low cost, disposable, high volume and highly autonomous capabilities to achieve advantage.
In total, across all 3 national innovation challenges, 173 qualified suppliers applied, in a show of strength of the AUKUS nations’ defence innovation capabilities.
The winning UK supplier organisations:
Amiosec Ltd: This project is seeking to create fake radio activity, masking the true location of friendly military forces to support missions. The research will focus on extending previous work on AI-generated traffic to boost realism to defeat adversary EW systems. It will be delivered by Amiosec in conjunction with its Australian defence technology partner, Penten.
Autonomous Devices Ltd: Is developing and flight-demonstrating the novel combination of a radar Electronic Counter Measure and a small Uncrewed Air System platform.
Roke Manor Research Ltd: The ability to transmit and receive on identical frequencies simultaneously has been an operational and technical challenge for decades. The Smart STAR Jammer project sets out to combine a Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (STAR) Transceiver jointly developed by Roke and the University of Bristol.
University of Liverpool: This project aims to improve the ability to detect multiple individual faint signals in close geometric proximity to one another. This will be achieved using a combination of machine learning and statistics.
AUKUS is a landmark security and defence partnership to support a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening regional global security. A major part of the partnership, named Pillar 1, is helping Australia to acquire its first conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
Through AUKUS Pillar 2 which includes advanced capabilities such as Artificial Intelligence, autonomy, quantum technologies and electronic warfare – the 3 national partners seek to strengthen trilateral capabilities in cutting-edge military technologies, increase interoperability, and drive knowledge-sharing and innovation. One of the aims of Pillar 2 is to “foster deeper integration of security and defence-related science, technology, industrial bases, and supply chains”.
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Castiel, played by Misha Collins, and Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, in an episode of ‘Supernatural.’ Destiel is the slash ship between the two characters.(Apple TV)
Although the practice of pairing two characters together had existed in fandom for a while, this is recognized as the first use of the term. By the late 1990s, “relationshipper” had been shortened to “shipper” and was being used in other major media fandoms as well.
A ship refers to a romantic pairing between two or more characters, and is often a pairing that doesn’t actively exist in the original story. To “ship” a pairing is to support and enjoy the idea of that specific relationship.
Top 11 Smulder moments from the X-Files YouTube channel.
In the early 2000s, ships were often assigned nautical names, but now they are commonly portmanteaus of the two characters being paired — like Drarry, for Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, or Spuffy for Buffy Summers and Spike.
Many people can relate to seeing two characters interact and thinking, “they’d make a great couple!” But why do we become so invested in these relationships? And what makes some characters more shippable than others?
No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.
Shipping has become a massive part of fan culture. Even when writers and media producers don’t explicitly pair up characters, fans will fill the gaps, creating their own versions and interpretations.
Fans often become deeply invested in fictional couples because they empathize with and feel connected to the characters.
Well-developed characters evoke emotional responses in audiences, similar to the connections we forge with others in real life, especially when we’ve spent a lot of time engaging with the media. The characters become like friends on the screen or page — we become invested in their relationships and growth.
This connection grows even more when characters are placed in relatable situations, such as navigating a breakup or unrequited love. When we can put ourselves in the shoes of the character, we become more invested in their story. Fans connect with characters, and then yearn for their happiness because it feels connected to their own happiness.
It becomes more than just a story; instead, shipping the characters becomes a way for fans to explore their own emotions.
The slow burn effect
In recent decades, media producers and writers have leaned heavily into “will they or won’t they” relationships. These situations, much like a cliffhanger, keep audiences emotionally invested and engaged with the relationship.
The anticipation keeps viewers coming back for more, waiting for the romantic payoff, even in cases when they know it will never happen. The tension built between characters and the feeling of an unresolved romantic narrative — whether intentional or not — heightens fan interest and engagement in shipping.
Shipping also allows fans to project their own desires and fantasies onto a character. We all have our ideal meet-cutes and daydreams about meeting “our person” and what that connection would be like.
Aziraphale, played by Michael Sheen, and Crowley, played by David Tennant, in an episode of ‘Good Omens.’ Ineffable Husbands is the ship name of these two characters. (Amazon Prime)
So, when we encounter a character who feels relatable, or who feels like “our person,” shipping allows us to explore those daydreams without any of the actual risks of complications involved in real life relationships. In many ways, the act of shipping is an exercise in emotional fulfillment for the fan.
Some characters naturally have a spark that draw fans to them — whether it’s through witty banter, emotional vulnerability, opposites-attract tension or the fact that there’s only one bed. When characters have great chemistry, fans can’t help but see the potential for something deeper.
This is especially true when a character’s arc involves personal or emotional growth, as we are eager to imagine a happy ending for characters who are evolving. Combine this growth with the tension of a “will they or won’t they” relationship — a classic of the 90s and 2000s sitcom, think Rachel and Ross from Friends, or Ted and Robin from How I Met Your Mother — and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a beloved ship.
In fact, a common shipping trope is the slow burn where the romance builds excruciatingly slowly. These types of relationships keep fans hooked because the development is gradual, and subtle. On-screen couples like Jess and Nick from New Girl and Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine-Nine are prime examples of this.
Jake Proposes to Amy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Fans experience the full gamut of the emotional journey with these characters and, should then tension break and romance bloom, the pay-off is incredibly satisfying.
If the relationships don’t come to pass, fans often turn to fanfiction — stories written by and for fans — to explore the potential of that ship more fully, with platforms like Archive of Our Own providing a space for these creative explorations.
Pushing for diversity in media
Fans are often drawn to relationships and characters that challenge the dominant ideologies and norms seen in media. Some of the most popular ships involve queer pairings — a trend that dates back, at least, to early days of media fandom with Spirk (Spock/Kirk) fanfiction.
Some of today’s most popular queer ships include Aziraphale/Crowley from Good Omens, Dean Winchester/Castiel from Supernatural, Villanelle/Eve from Killing Eve and Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham from Hannibal.
Such relationships can provide a sense of representation that’s often lacking in mainstream media, allowing fans to see themselves in the stories they love. In this way, shipping can serve as a form of advocacy, pushing for greater diversity and inclusivity in media.
Shipping is about more than wanting characters to kiss — it’s an emotionally charged experience that culminates from empathy, narrative tension, personal fantasies and desires. For fans, these fictional relationships can feel as real as any in our own lives, and that’s why we keep coming back for more.
Effie Sapuridis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Cohort of new students start England’s first new BEd course for 30 years
Almost 100 local students have embarked on England’s first new Batchelor of Education (BEd) course in 30 years as they begin their training to become the region’s next primary school teachers.
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is the newest provider of Initial Teacher Training in the country, and teaching got underway for the BEd Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status course in Chelmsford, Cambridge and Peterborough this week.
Interested in becoming a teacher?
Find out more about our BEd Primary Education degree at an Open Day. Book your place for 5 October or 23 November 2024.
It is estimated that around 200 people leave the region every year to seek undergraduate teacher training opportunities at universities elsewhere in the country. It is hoped that the new, innovative course delivered by ARU will increase the number of teachers who train locally and stay in the region’s schools after graduation.
The course combines three years of academic study with three high-quality assessed placements with primary schools across the East of England and London.
Designed and taught by primary teachers who took the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) route in to teaching, the new course is regulated by Ofsted.
Jenny Fogarty, Director of Initial Teacher Training at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said:
“We were thrilled to welcome our first cohort onto our campuses this week and we look forward to working with them over the next three years, nurturing them and developing them into primary school teachers fit for 21st Century classrooms.
“As the only new accredited provider of Initial Teacher Training in England, this is a landmark moment for education in the East of England and we hope it will put an end to people feeling they need to move away in order to become a teacher.”
Anyone interested in finding out more, and potentially applying to be part of the 2025 cohort in Cambridge, Chelmsford, or Peterborough, is encouraged to attend one of ARU’s next undergraduate open days on Saturday, 5 October or Saturday, 23 November 2024.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ThoughtSpot, the AI-Powered Analytics Company, today announced that the Company has appointed Ketan Karkhanis as Chief Executive Officer.
Ketan is joining ThoughtSpot from Salesforce, where he has spent over a decade of his career. He most recently served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Salesforce Sales Cloud business, leading one of the company’s largest cloud businesses that generated more than $7 billion last fiscal year. He returned to Salesforce in March 2022 after his time as the COO of Turvo, a supply-chain collaboration platform that was acquired by Lineage Logistics in 2022. Before that, Ketan was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Salesforce Einstein Analytics, incubating the business from launch to over $300 million and a 30,000 strong user community.
“During this time of accelerated transformation driven by the advent of generative AI, there is no better person to lead ThoughtSpot than Ketan,” said Ajeet Singh, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of ThoughtSpot. “He is a customer-obsessed, employee-focused business leader with a deep experience in analytics and has built and led world-class SaaS businesses of significant scale. The ThoughtSpot Board believes that Ketan is the right leader to help ThoughtSpot capitalize on its foundational innovation and capture the massive market opportunity that lies ahead in AI-powered analytics.”
Singh added, “Over the last six months, ThoughtSpot has made significant progress in accelerating its product roadmap, delivering genAI-driven value to customers that are migrating away from legacy visualization platforms, and centering its focus on durable growth at scale, all setting the table for our next CEO.”
“Ketan has the passion and experience to lead ThoughtSpot in its next chapter,” said Ravi Mhatre, Founder and Managing Director of Lightspeed Venture Partners and the founding investor on ThoughtSpot’s Board of Directors. “This appointment comes at a perfect time for the market as analytics is redefined by genAI, and ensures that ThoughtSpot is best positioned to scale rapidly.”
“ThoughtSpot has built a fundamentally different approach to analytics since its inception, squarely focused on democratizing data and empowering everyone to make data-driven decisions with its AI and search-driven analytics platform,” said Ketan Karkhanis, CEO of ThoughtSpot. “ThoughtSpot has a significant head start in innovation that is required for truly delivering on the expectations that genAI has created, with a proven solution that is delivering value to some of the largest and most complex enterprises in the world. I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to lead the company that finds itself intersecting with the genAI tailwinds at a perfect time, and is in a strong position to capitalize on this market opportunity by bringing unparalleled value to over a thousand customers across the globe.”
Ketan has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from PICT (Pune Institute of Computer Technology, India) and an MBA from Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business.
About ThoughtSpot ThoughtSpot is the AI-Powered Analytics company. Our mission is to create a more fact-driven world with the easiest to use analytics platform. With ThoughtSpot, anyone can leverage natural language search to ask and answer data questions with confidence. ThoughtSpot enables everyone within an organization to limitlessly engage with live data in any major cloud data platform, making it easy to create and interact with granular, hyper-personalized, and actionable insights. Customers can take advantage of both ThoughtSpot’s web and mobile applications to improve decision-making for every employee, wherever and whenever decisions are made. With ThoughtSpot’s low-code developer-friendly platform, ThoughtSpot Embedded, customers can also embed AI-Powered Analytics to their products and services, monetizing their data and engaging users to keep them coming back for more. Organizations like Capital One, Daimler, Comcast, Cigna, Royal Bank of Canada, Nasdaq, and Unilever rely on ThoughtSpot to transform how their employees and customers take advantage of data. Try ThoughtSpot today and see for yourself.
Mylène Paradis (BA [communications], Université Laval, 1991; MA [journalism], Université Laval, 1993) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2002.
Mylène Paradis (BA [communications], Université Laval, 1991; MA [journalism], Université Laval, 1993) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2002. At headquarters, she held positions with the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force and the Central America and Caribbean Bureau. She was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Minister of International Development and Director of the Global Health and Nutrition Branch. Abroad, she was posted to Madrid from 2005 to 2008. Throughout her career, she has held secondments to various departments, including the Privy Council Office, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Health Canada. Most recently, she was Director General of Canadian Partnerships for Health and Social Development at Global Affairs Canada.
Marianick Tremblay (BBA [civil and international law], Université de Sherbrooke, 1989; LL.B. Université de Sherbrooke, 1990) was called to the Quebec Bar in 1990 and joined External Affairs and International Trade Canada in 1993. At headquarters, she served as senior counsel in the Environmental Law Division, coordinator of the Human Security Program, and senior counsel for small arms. Ms. Tremblay also served as deputy director of the Brazil and Southern Cone Section, and then as director of Hemispheric Affairs, which included relations with the Organization of American States and coordination of the Canadian delegation’s participation in the Summit of the Americas. From 2018 to 2021, she served as director general of the Mobilization of Canadians in the Partnerships for Development Innovation Sector. She has served in various overseas postings, including Mexico (1995–1998), Morocco (2001–2005), Chile (2007–2010), and as Ambassador to El Salvador (2010–2012), Ecuador (2015–2018), and Colombia (2021–2024).
Craig Weichel (BA Honours [History], Wilfrid Laurier University, 1994; MA [History], McMaster University, 1996) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1998. At headquarters, he worked in the U.S. General Relations, Northern Europe, Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (Nuclear), and United Nations divisions. He also headed the Natural Disaster Response and Civilian Security Policy Division and the North Korea Task Force. From 2007 to 2009, he was President of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers. Abroad, he served in New York with the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations; in Vienna with the Canadian Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe; in Rome and, more recently, in Washington, where he directed the embassy’s environment and energy program.
Brenda Wills (Hons BComm, University of Manitoba, 2003; MSc [Sustainable Development], University of Sussex, 2021) is a Métis from Red River, Manitoba who joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2004. Her first posting abroad was in Washington, D.C. as Second Secretary (Trade Policy). She subsequently served as First Secretary (Trade) in Chile, Senior Trade Commissioner and Counsellor (Trade) in Colombia, and Counsellor (Trade Policy) in Mexico City. At Headquarters, she worked in the Trade Policy and Negotiations Branch, first on negotiations with the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, and then on the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations as Deputy Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement. She also served as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Deputy Minister of International Business Development and Canada’s Chief Trade Commissioner. Most recently, she served as Senior Trade Commissioner and Counsellor (Commercial Affairs) in Singapore.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
Exactly one year ago, the Polytechnic launched the Lepota ecosystem project — the discussion club “You have the floor!” During this time, students and university staff have had six distinguished guests as interlocutors: the coach of the Zenit football club Sergey Semak, academician of the Russian Academy of Education Tatyana Chernigovskaya, legendary hockey player Vyacheslav Fetisov, neuropsychologist and psychotherapist Alena Vanchenko, chief architect of the investment and construction holding “A101” Elizaveta Grechukhina, professional developer of educational games and author of additional education programs Andrey Latyshev.
And now a new season has begun in the discussion club. It was opened by the St. Petersburg actor, TV and radio host and blogger Andrey Zaitsev.
Andrey is best known to the general public as a dubbing actor. He voices characters in at least 199 foreign films. Including the main characters: programmer Daniel Domscheit-Berg, played by Daniel Brühl in The Fifth Estate, Sam Hall played by Jake Gyllenhaal in The Day After Tomorrow, Richard Madden’s prince in Cinderella, etc. Fans of the Star Wars saga certainly know that Andrey Zaytsev has been speaking for Anakin Skywalker since 2002. Fans of The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy know Andrey as Star Lord. And if you rewatch Terminator, note that in the third part, Andrey voices John Connor. And, of course, Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean.
So, one can say that in Andrey the polytechnicians saw (or rather heard) all their favorite movie characters at once, which is why the atmosphere at the meeting was so light and relaxed. In addition, Andrey has a great sense of humor, and he easily won over the audience. Although he admitted that he was very nervous, because speaking in front of an audience is always difficult. By the way, among the numerous questions to the guest was one about how to overcome constraint in public speaking.
“The most important thing is that I can be useful to you,” Andrey said at the very beginning of the meeting, inviting us to a dialogue. “Today, many people, in parallel with their main activities, try themselves in voice-over work, try to show themselves, primarily on social networks, and this is normal. I will tell you everything that interests you in the industry of dubbing, cinema, sound, artificial intelligence, to which I have also already contributed my voice.”
The guys were interested in whether AI could replace voice actors in the future. In response, Andrey let them listen to his own voice, made by a neural network.
“This is already happening,” he admitted. “For example, Teo Voice signed a contract with me, we made two voices. One is my regular one, and the other is an old man’s. It’s for streamers, for computer games. Artificial intelligence will help us develop further. Today, if we have professional burnout, we go to ChatGPT and solve the problem with its help. But creative brains cannot be replaced by anything.”
Naturally, the audience wanted to know why Andrey took up dubbing films.
I always dreamed of working with a microphone. I graduated from school in 1996. The first place I wanted to get into was the radio. I thought you had to speak endlessly fast there, like DJs in the 90s, and I still speak very fast and often now — such is my professional deformation. I started with Radio Shanson, then worked for 16 years at Avtoradio. I understood that radio people in the 90s were mostly educated as actors.
The meeting did not pass without discoveries. Thus, the students learned that whispering is harmful to the vocal cords, it is a lot of strain. And the best way to restore a torn voice is… regular sleep. And silence.
It also turned out that in dubbing, in addition to the translator, there is also the profession of “stacker”.
“The actors must get not only the intonation right, but also the closure,” Andrey Zaitsev explained. “It’s not enough to translate a film; there’s a concept called ‘lip syncing’ (full synchronization of sound and visuals in films – Ed.). Sometimes it’s not the dubbing that’s bad, it’s just the translation that’s ‘off track.’ And the perfect dubbing is in the film ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’”
Andrey advised those students who were interested in how to get into voice acting to act on their own.
Come to try at a studio – there is no such practice now. Now there is the Internet. I always recommend starting on your own. But if you try to voice, then choose characters of your age. And sometimes your build. When dubbing, specific actors are selected for specific characters.
The conversation ended with a question about plans and dreams for the future.
I don’t make plans in the dubbing industry, I’ve already done everything there. I’ve made my acting business cards and want to do something where I can be useful 300 percent, and not plug a hole in another run-of-the-mill series. It’s a little comforting to me that Louis de Funes became popular at 54, I still have some time to spare.
According to tradition, two Lepota branded T-shirts appeared on stage at the end of the meeting. One, with the seventh number, was given to the guest. And on the second one, he left an autograph for the Polytechnicians. Andrey wrote a wish: “Live only for what you love.” And, of course, he could not help but add the great words from the star saga, but did it with reference to the meeting place: “May the power of the Polytechnic be with you!”
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Headline: A year of DAX Copilot: Healthcare innovation that refocuses on the clinician-patient connection
In 2012, a child’s drawing of her appointment with a physician was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In the brightly colored sketch, the girl is sitting on the exam table accompanied by her mother and siblings. To those of us working in healthcare, her doctor is the most notable part of the image. He is sitting at his desk, typing on the computer — with his back to the patient.
This drawing, published alongside an article titled “The Cost of Technology,” is emblematic of the unintended consequences of healthcare innovation. With more tools for physicians to use and greater demands on their time, technology can easily become a barrier between the clinician and the patient. For example, in 2023 approximately 53% of physicians surveyed by Medscape reported feeling burned out, and 23% reported feeling depressed. Long working hours, bureaucratic demands and loss of work-life balance due to administrative requirements are leading causes. Our mission has always been to help clinicians turn their chairs around by providing the support they need to fully focus their attention on delivering care.
Fast-forward to today, and we’ve translated that goal into reality. After establishing the ambient technology category, we introduced DAX Copilot, the first generative AI voice-enabled solution, which has been generally available for one year, and we’re seeing remarkable momentum. Part of a proven and extensible platform, DAX Copilot leverages health systems’ existing investments in the trusted family of Dragon Medical solutions, which is used by more than 600,000 clinicians worldwide.
DAX Copilot combines proven conversational and ambient AI with generative AI to automatically convert multiparty conversations into specialty-specific standardized draft clinical summaries that integrate with existing workflows. DAX Copilot was the first ambient solution to be integrated into the Epic electronic health record (EHR) workflow and allows clinicians to seamlessly document patient visits directly within the EHR. Across the country, more than 400 organizations have already embraced its revolutionary capabilities, streamlining administrative tasks and lightening clinicians’ documentation workloads.
This transformative year has highlighted many of the ways we’re helping empower healthcare teams today and bringing joy back to practicing medicine for thousands of clinicians.
Improving Access to Care — and Enhancing Documentation Quality
DAX Copilot is helping Northwestern Medicine in Chicago improve patient access to care, with physicians using the solution in at least 50% of patient encounters and able to see an average of 11.3 additional patients per month. DAX Copilot users at Northwestern Medicine also report spending an average of 24% less time on notes and a 17% decrease in ‘pajama time,’ working on administrative tasks late into the night.
“Northwestern Medicine is committed to providing a superior work environment that promotes well-being, and implementing DAX Copilot will allow our physicians to spend more quality time with our patients, focusing on their needs rather than on paperwork and data entry,” says Dr. Gaurava Agarwal, chief wellness executive, Northwestern Medicine.
Overlake Medical Center & Clinics in Bellevue, Washington, deployed DAX Copilot to help reduce after-hours documentation time and equip its clinicians with tools to manage escalating demands. A pilot with 30 Overlake clinicians saw a significant reduction in time spent on notes outside of scheduled hours. Users also reported other important benefits: 81% said DAX Copilot had reduced their cognitive burden and77% said the solution had improved the quality of their documentation.
At Atrium Health, “DAX Copilot is enabling a better clinician experience,” says Dr. Matthew Anderson, senior medical director of primary care at Atrium Health. “Most of our surveyed users are reporting a positive impact on their day-to-day schedule, being able to increase the number of patients they are able to see and even spending more time with them.”
Enhancing Clinician Well-being
Atrium Health isn’t alone in finding that the time saved on documentation with DAX Copilot is having a positive impact on clinicians’ quality of life. “I finally have weekends back,” says Dr. Christy Chan, a family medicine physician at Overlake. “I used to always have to worry that there was something I had to do — get back onto the EMR, log back in — but I actually have some weekends back.”
Clinicians at Novant Health are experiencing similar benefits. “DAX Copilot has done an amazing thing for the physicians and clinicians who are currently using it,” says Dr. Aram Alexanian, a family physician at Novant Health. “When you hear a comment like ‘I am now able to do things with my daughter in the evenings and weekends that I couldn’t do before,’ nothing satisfies us more than knowing the impact DAX is having on our clinicians.”
DAX Copilot can accurately identify different voices in the room during pediatric visits, differentiating between parents and children to accurately capture the patient exam note for the physician to review and approve.
Community Health Network places a major focus on clinician well-being and implementing DAX Copilot has had a major impact on its clinicians’ ability to close notes before they leave for the day. “Since we have implemented DAX Copilot, I have not left clinic with an open note,” says Dr. Patrick McGill, chief transformation officer for Community Health Network. “We have seen improved access, improved numbers of patients, but overall, it’s really the clinician satisfaction that we’ve seen. In one word, DAX Copilot is transformative. It transforms how we’re able to deliver care and how we’re able to document it. It also transforms the patient experience.”
“DAX Copilot has made my professional life easier. My patients have also benefited from my using Nuance DAX during our appointments. I can be right there with the patient and not furiously writing notes. I cannot thank you enough,” said Anita M. Kelsey, M.D., Duke Health.
Transforming the Patient Experience
Dr. Dominick Lanzo, an orthopedic surgeon at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, agrees. “Once I introduced the DAX Copilot program, it completely transformed the patient experience, and it’s turned out to be incredibly accurate with regards to the history of present illness and the physical exam,” he says. “It’s made my practice much more efficient. I can see more patients, my notes are more accurate, and they’re done in a timely fashion by the end of the afternoon.”
For Dr. Alison Pomykala, an internal medicine specialist at Baptist Medical Group, the integration of DAX Copilot with the Epic EHR is particularly valuable. “The thing I like most about DAX Copilot embedded in the Epic workflow is I’m able to focus more on the patient and I’m spending less time in the exam room typing on the computer,” she says.
“I think the interface is wonderful with Epic. It has been great to see the notes coming up basically in real time on the Epic system. That’s also helped with other things: where we needed to generate a note quickly for referrals, for insurance pre-certifications, for imaging studies, or to have a complete note ready for a patient that we’re sending to the hospital.”
“At our academic health system, integrating DAX Copilot has revolutionized patient care,” says Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli, co-president and CEO at Cooper University Health Care. “By automating clinical documentation through ambient voice technology, it has significantly reduced administrative workloads. This allows our physicians to focus on real-time patient interactions, leading to better care outcomes and increased job satisfaction. DAX Copilot has not only improved efficiency but has also empowered our team to spend more time where it matters most — caring for patients.”
It’s a privilege to see this industry-leading solution make a meaningful difference for the clinicians who are already on board — but the work never stops. The Microsoft healthcare team is determined to continue solving some of the industry’s most complex challenges, and harnessing the power and potential of AI is how we’ll achieve that. We will continue to be leaders in innovation, collaborating across our ecosystem of incredible customers, partners and Microsoft researchers to bring real impact to clinical settings.
DAX Copilot is an innovative solution that goes beyond documentation, offering unique features such as orders, problem-based charting and pre-charting capabilities. For example, recent updates to DAX Copilot include a robust set of features, such as the ability to customize documentation style and formatting, as well as automatically create referral letters, diagnostic evidence, after-visit summaries and encounter summaries. The solution also now offers AI coaching to help users improve the quality and completeness of their notes. Also, the new Summarized Evidence capability offers a comprehensive and sophisticated approach that helps clinicians validate and trust the note output by combining insights that go beyond evidence linking, helping clinicians validate the note.
Importantly, when creating technologies that can change the world, Microsoft believes organizations need to ensure that the technology is used responsibly. Microsoft is committed to creating responsible AI by design that is guided by a core set of principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability.
DAX Copilot is helping restore the human connection at the heart of medicine. We’re excited to drive this solution forward and expand its reach to more clinicians over the coming year and beyond.
Today, the solution can be used across ambulatory specialties, in-office primary care and urgent care, telehealth and emergency medicine. And we are scaling the solution’s availability and capabilities to even more care settings, such as nursing and geographies.
If you’d like to learn how DAX Copilot can help transform healthcare at your organization, please visit: the DAX Copilot website.
Tags: AI, Copilot, Dax Copilot, Dragon Medical solutions, Generative AI, Microsoft Partners, Responsible AI
Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 2
News Release
Thursday, September 26, 2024
NIH-supported findings pave the way for genetic testing, clinical trials, and therapy development.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues have identified a gene responsible for some inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), which are a group of disorders that damage the eye’s light-sensing retina and threatens vision. Though IRDs affect more than 2 million people worldwide, each individual disease is rare, complicating efforts to identify enough people to study and conduct clinical trials to develop treatment. The study’s findings published today in JAMA Ophthalmology.
In a small study of six unrelated participants, researchers linked the gene UBAP1L to different forms of retinal dystrophies, with issues affecting the macula, the part of the eye used for central vision such as for reading (maculopathy), issues affecting the cone cells that enable color vision (cone dystrophy) or a disorder that also affects the rod cells that enable night vision (cone-rod dystrophy). The patients had symptoms of retinal dystrophy starting in early adulthood, progressing to severe vision loss by late adulthood.
“The patients in this study showed symptoms and features similar to other IRDs, but the cause of their condition was uncertain,” said Bin Guan, Ph.D., chief of the Ophthalmic Genomics Laboratory at NIH’s National Eye Institute (NEI) and a senior author of the report. “Now that we’ve identified the causative gene, we can study how the gene defect causes disease and, hopefully, develop treatment.”
Identifying the UBAP1L gene’s involvement adds to the list of more than 280 genes responsible for this heterogeneous disease.
“These findings highlight the importance of providing genetic testing to our patients with retinal dystrophy, and the value of the clinic and lab working together to better understand retinal diseases,” said co-senior author on the paper, Laryssa A. Huryn, M.D., an ophthalmologist at the NEI, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Genetic evaluation of the six patients revealed four variants in the UBAP1L gene, which encodes for a protein that is abundantly expressed in retina cells, including retinal pigment epithelium cells and photoreceptors. More research is needed to understand the UBAP1L gene’s exact function, but scientists were able to determine that the identified variants likely cause the gene to produce protein that lacks function.
Future studies will also be informed by the fact that variants appear to be distinctive to geographic regions. Five of the six families in this study were from South or Southeastern Asia, or Polynesia, regions that have been underrepresented in genetic studies.
The research was co-led by investigators at Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London.
The study was funded by the Intramural Research Program at the NEI, and by NEI grants R01EY022356 and R01EY020540. Researchers at the University of Liverpool (UK), and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx also contributed to this report.
This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process— each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research. To learn more about basic research, visit https://www.nih.gov/news-events/basic-research-digital-media-kit.
NEI leads the federal government’s research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs to develop sight-saving treatments and address special needs of people with vision loss. For more information, visit https://www.nei.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®
Reference
Ullah E, Lin S, Lu J, Bender C, Webster AR, Malka S, Madusudhan S, Rees E, Williams D, Agather AR, Cukras CA, Hufnagel RB, Chen R, Huryn LA, Arno G, Guan B. “Biallelic loss-of-function variants in UBAP1L and nonsyndromic retinal dystrophies,” September 26, 2024, JAMA Ophthalmology. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2024.3836
America Reyes Wang, the lead of the the Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, stands beside a spacesuit display. Photo courtesy of America Reyes Wang
As humans return to the Moon and push on toward Mars, scientists are ramping up research into the effects of space on the body to make sure astronauts stay healthy on longer missions. This research often involves spaceflight studies of rodents, insects, and other models in orbiting laboratories such as the International Space Station. However, space-related biological samples are difficult to get, meaning that researchers who want to study space biology are frequently out of luck.
America Reyes Wang, a KBR employee and the lead of the Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, oversees the team that has changed that. Birthed from an initiative first pioneered in the 1960s, the Biospecimen Sharing Program collects samples and data from NASA non-human space biology studies and makes them available in the public, open NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR).
To derive the most benefit from the precious few biology studies taking place in space, Reyes Wang arranges collaborations on space biology dissections with NASA-funded researchers so that her team can collect and preserve unutilized biospecimens for others to use. Outside researchers can request the samples to study in person by writing and submitting proposals. Once analyzed, researchers share their data back with the NASA OSDR for other investigators to access and study.
The ethos of open science is central to Reyes Wang’s approach to her work. “The samples that we work with are so precious,” she said. “To me, it’s a no-brainer — why not share what we can share?”
America Reyes Wang wears personal protective equipment (PPE) while working on an activity for NASA’s Biospecimen Sharing Program. Photo courtesy of America Reyes Wang
Reyes Wang aspired to work in the scientific or medical field from a young age, driven by her desire to help people. Her father, who was born in El Salvador and dreamed of being an astronaut after watching the 1969 Moon landing, inspired Reyes Wang to fall in love with space. She also credited her Salvadoran and Mexican family with teaching her the value of understanding different experiences.
“To me, being Hispanic, especially as a Latina in STEM, means recognizing and building upon the hard work and sacrifices of those who came before me, as well as extending a helping hand to those around me for the betterment of us all,” Reyes Wang said. “It also means enjoying and sharing our vibrant cultures.”
As a student at Stanford University, Reyes Wang conducted neurobiology research with rodents, but assumed she would have to choose her love of biology over her love of space. The field of space biology allowed her to combine those interests. Having quietly dreamed of working for NASA for years, she was also thrilled to find that she could work on NASA missions as a space biologist.
If we want to keep up with the pace of humanity’s aspirations to travel further and for longer … open science is one of the best tools we have for achieving those dreams.
America Reyes Wang Biospecimen Sharing Program Lead
Reyes Wang first found a role supporting NASA as an experiment support scientist for the agency’s Rodent Research Program. While she no longer facilitates research on the International Space Station in her current position, she uses her scientific expertise and collaborative outlook to guide the Biospecimen Sharing Program in a direction that will most help advance science.
Despite space biology’s status as a relatively niche field, Reyes Wang has noted its tremendous impact on the biological sciences, medicine, and technology as a whole. For example, spaceflown biological samples are often used to investigate diseases that affect people on Earth. Reyes Wang’s involvement in accelerating these studies captures her long-held desire to help people.
“Open science gives the world an opportunity to get these important answers much more quickly,” Reyes Wang said. “If we want to keep up with the pace of humanity’s aspirations to travel further and for longer, we need to pick up the pace when it comes to getting the answers, and I think open science is one of the best tools we have for achieving those dreams.”
By Lauren Leese Web Content Strategist for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christoph Bluth, Professor of International Relations and Security, University of Bradford
Vladimir Putin has announced what appears to be a dramatic strengthening of Russia’s nuclear doctrine. The Russian president was responding to speculation that the west may relax its restrictions on Ukraine’s use of its weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
He told his security council that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons. The trigger for the launch of nuclear missiles against Ukraine or any of its allies, he said, would be “reliable information about a massive launch of aerospace attack means and their crossing of our state border”.
Whether this will affect the thinking of Ukraine’s western allies about the use of its long-range missiles has yet to be seen. But one of the major features of the public discourse about the Ukraine war has been the risk of the use of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear threats have been a standard tactic for the Russian leadership. Whenever Ukraine receives new weapons from the west or is allowed to use western arms to target Russian territory Moscow has responded by either referring to the devastation it could wreak with its nuclear arsenal or by holding a drill to remind the west of its existence.
But there have recently been reports of a growing realisation among Putin’s close advisers that these threats are beginning to wear thin, as one after another of Moscow’s “red lines” are ignored.
Nevertheless, despite providing Ukraine with the most advanced air defence systems and offensive missiles that could strike targets deep within Russia – and perhaps even influence the course of the war – Nato countries are maintaining a strict limit on their use. It’s an indication that despite scepticism about Putin’s willingness to use nuclear weapons, deterrence remains robust – in western minds anyway.
Nuclear deterrence is based on the threat to inflict “unacceptable damage” on an enemy. It is credible only if the adversary believes that the threat is accompanied by the capability and will to follow through.
Nuclear powers have generally conducted nuclear messaging by publicising guidelines for the use of their arsenals. Nato’s current strategic concept was adopted by heads of state and government at the alliance’s summit in Madrid in June 2022. It states: “The circumstances in which Nato might have to use nuclear weapons are extremely remote.”
But the document stresses that if nuclear weapons were used against any Nato member state it would “fundamentally alter” any conflict in which Nato was engaged. It goes on to warn that: “The Alliance has the capabilities and resolve to impose costs on an adversary that would be unacceptable and far outweigh the benefits that any adversary could hope to achieve.”
Russia, meanwhile, is reportedly updating its nuclear doctrine in response to what it says is “western escalation” in the war in Ukraine. The current doctrine, established by a decree in 2020, says Russia can use nuclear weapons to respond to a nuclear attack by an enemy, or to a conventional attack that “threatens the existence of the state”.
The latest statement by Putin is apparently the “draft” of a reworked nuclear doctrine. It certainly appears to lower the bar on resorting to the use of nuclear weapons.
Sabre rattling
The Russian leader made his first overt threat to use nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine in September 2022. He was overseeing the annexation of four occupied Ukrainian provinces after hastily arranged plebiscites, which were generally regarded in the west as being rigged.
He stated that “the US is the only country in the world that twice used nuclear weapons, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Incidentally, they created a precedent.”
He went on to assert that during the second world war the US and Britain had deliberately bombed several German cities to rubble. This, he insisted, had the “sole goal, just like in the case of nuclear bombardments in Japan, to scare our country and the entire world”.
But CIA director William Burns recently said the west should not take Putin’s threats seriously: “Putin’s a bully. He’s going to continue to sabre rattle from time to time.”
CIA director Wiliam Burns and MI6 chief Richatrd Moore in conversation at an FT conference, September 2024.
Burns told a festival organised by the Financial Times on September 7 that: “There was a moment in the fall of 2022 when I think there was a genuine risk of potential use of tactical nuclear weapons … I never thought … we should be unnecessarily intimidated by that.”
He said he had subsequently passed on a message from US president Joe Biden to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the Russian foreign intelligence service at a meeting in Turkey in November 2022 “to make very clear what the consequences of that kind of escalation would be”.
US satellite networks and other intelligence sources have shown no evidence of any preparations for the employment of nuclear weapons. This is despite Russian claims that the alert status of Russian forces has been raised.
But Putin’s proxies have been busily putting out propaganda messages to reinforce their leader’s threats. According to the Washington Post, Alexander Mikhailov, the director of the Bureau of Military Political Analysis, recently called for Russia to bomb plywood mock-ups of London and Washington to simulate a nuclear attack, so that that would “burn so beautifully that it will horrify the world”.
The speaker of the lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin, warned that strikes on Russia would lead to war with nuclear weapons and warned that the European parliament in Strasbourg was only a three-minute flight for a Russian nuclear missile.
So far Putin’s threats have been sufficient to limit the scope of western involvement. Whether the Russian president’s latest threat will be effective is now the question.
Christoph Bluth received funding from the Volkswagen Stiftung and the AHRC
While Russia continues its nuclear sabre rattling, with renewed threats to use its arsenal if attacked, fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine and in Russia’s Kursk region remains intense. But the diplomatic centre of gravity of the war recently shifted to New York and Washington.
Discussions at the UN and meetings scheduled between the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the US president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris are by no means unimportant for the outcomes of the conflict. But it is unlikely that they will constitute the pivotal moment in accelerating the pace towards a Ukrainian victory that Zelensky might envisage.
At meetings at the UN general assembly and security council, Zelensky appealed to world leaders to support his country and force Russia to make peace with Ukraine. His vision to achieve this is via a second global peace summit. This time he wants Russia to participate after the first effort in Switzerland in June achieved very little.
But with Zelensky continuing to push his ten-point peace plan and Putin insisting on Ukraine recognising Russia’s annexation of Crimea and four regions on the mainland, the two sides are as far apart as ever. So prospects of any meaningful negotiations virtually non-existent.
The plan “envisages quick and concrete steps by our strategic partners … from now until the end of December”. These concrete steps are likely to include more western military support and the permission to use longer-range western weapons against targets deeper inside Russia.
This latter point is something on which the western alliance is divided – and the US sceptical on its strategic value. Putin’s insistence that Russia will respond by using its nuclear arsenal if it detects any western missiles crossing its border will have added to this uncertainty.
Even if more decisive western support were suddenly forthcoming, it is unlikely that it would offset other disadvantages that Ukraine and its allies are facing on the battlefield and beyond. Russia has consolidated its alliances with Iran, North Korea and China. All of these countries have supplied mission-critical ammunition and equipment that has enabled the Kremlin to sustain its war effort in Ukraine.
Russia, so far, has also maintained its advantage in numbers. It appears to be determined to push this even harder following Putin’s order to increase the number of combat troops of the Russian army by another 180,000 soldiers.
Meanwhile, a relentless Russian air campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure has also caused lasting damage, especially to the country’s energy supply network. This is likely to have a particularly adverse effect on Ukraine’s civilian population. It is likely to seriously dent morale during the coming winter.
Other plans (and priorities)
As discussions at the UN this week have underlined, there is also some diplomatic momentum building up behind a joint proposal by Brazil and China that was initially launched in May. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pushed the plan during his speech at the UN general assembly on September 24, as did China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi.
Like previous proposals from China and Brazil individually, as well as from Indonesia, a group of African states and Saudi Arabia, the joint Brazilian-Chinese plan calls for a ceasefire along the current frontlines. Negotiations would then follow.
Ukraine fears, rightly, that this would entrench the status quo and effectively amount to Kyiv giving up territory illegally annexed by Russia. It would not guarantee any fruitful negotiations but give Russia time and space to regroup and rebuild its armed forces for a likely future escalation. None of this is acceptable to Ukraine and its allies as Zelensky made clear in his speech at the UN.
Volodymr Zelensky criticises the Brazil-China plan at the UN general assembly.
China’s previous effort to promote this joint initiative with Brazil just before the peace summit in Switzerland last June, did not go very far. It may not go much further this time either.
But attention and resources are now much more focused on the Middle East and – to a lesser extent – the civil war in Sudan. So the very fact of this plan’s resurrection may be enough for Russia and its allies to prevent the rest of the world from uniting behind the western-backed Ukrainian proposal for a second global peace summit.
This is clearly a concern for Ukraine. Zelensky, with a clear eye on countries in the global south, not only rejected the proposal but also argued that forcing Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia would be akin to reimposing a version of the brutal colonial past of the Soviet era on his country.
Will Zelensky be Trumped in November?
While the stars are thus hardly aligning in Ukraine’s favour at the UN in New York, things did not go much better as far as US domestic politics is concerned ahead of presidential elections in November. Questioning whether Donald Trump really has a credible plan to end the war, Zelensky triggered the notoriously short-fused Republican contender into lashing out at him at campaign rallies.
Donald Trump takes aim at Volodymr Zelensky.
Trump is both accusing Zelensky of refusing to make a deal and expressing doubts about Ukraine’s ability to win the war. Meanwhile, a recent opinion piece penned by Robert F. Kennedy Jnr and Donald Trump Jnr for The Hill, an influential political newspaper, urges that Ukraine be pushed to make a deal with Russia to prevent nuclear escalation.
And Trump’s running-mate J.D. Vance has made clear his opposition to the US continuing to supply aid to Ukraine if elected in November. So it’s pretty clear that there is a very real prospect that Washington may soon cease to be Kyiv’s most important global ally.
All of this explains the urgency behind Zelensky’s push for more and more decisive western support in the coming months, and his pleas to the wider international community to back efforts for a just peace for Ukraine. But it also indicates that Russia and its allies have, for now, done enough to further frustrate any progress towards a Ukrainian victory both on the battlefield and at the negotiation table.
Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Guy Collender, Post Doctoral Senior Research Associate, Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures, University of Portsmouth
The rapid sinking of the Bayesian superyacht and the loss of seven lives, including tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, in August 2024 cruelly emphasised the potentially lethal perils of the sea. This tragedy, although much publicised, is far from unusual. Globally, accidents at sea lead to thousands of deaths every year – but the true scale of the problem is unknown.
Undoubtedly, life at sea remains hard and dangerous in the 21st century, but this is difficult to quantify. There were 215 shipping industry related deaths at sea recorded in 2022. However, due to a lack of standardised data and under-reporting this figure is likely to be an underestimate.
Efforts to raise awareness and improve safety at sea today have much to learn from historic and successful safety initiatives in the UK’s docks. My research on early 20th century docks shows that proper data is a prerequisite to understanding a problem and identifying trends. Such an assessment can then lead to the allocation of resources, targeted safety measures – and life-saving change.
These steps all apply to improving safety at sea, but the lack of accurate data is a real stumbling block.
Life and death at sea
Fishing is widely recognised as the “most dangerous occupation globally”, but estimates of deaths among the fishing community vary enormously from 32,000 to more than 100,000 deaths per year. Of course, such deaths also occur inland in lakes and rivers, as well as at sea.
Twenty-six vessels of over 100 gross tonnes were recorded lost in 2023, with 13 sinking beneath the waves. This is low when compared with the loss of more than 200 vessels a year in the 1990s, but there have also been recent worrying trends such as attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. So far in 2024, four Red Sea seafarers have been killed by Houthi rebels from Yemem, with others injured and held hostage.
Desperation and war are also leading to deaths and risks elsewhere. A total of 3,155 migrants crossing the Mediterranean were recorded as missing or dead in 2023.
Nevertheless, such challenges and risks to life are increasingly being recognised and efforts are underway to address them. Importantly, better data collection and monitoring is in the pipeline.
An amendment to the 2006 international maritime labour convention is expected to come into force in December 2024. It will require countries that have agreed to the convention to report deaths of seafarers on an annual basis to the UN’s International Labour Office.
These will be published in a global register, and they will be investigated. It remains to be seen how such reporting will operate in practice and how deaths will be categorised – but it will be a good start.
My study shows how progress was linked to gathering better data, and recognising the risks of loading and unloading cargo. The counting and scrupulous categorisation of accidents helped identify the problems and appropriate safety measures.
In 1900, factory inspectors identified five causes of dock accidents, including falls (into the ship’s hold, or into the water), and shunting accidents involving trains. The docks were classified as one of the “dangerous trades” in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
Under the dock regulations of 1904, “life-saving appliances” – chains or floats – were introduced to prevent drownings. Lifting machinery was also subject to stringent checks to prevent deaths from falling loads.
And more and more proactive inspections took place as the number of inspectors rose from 137 in 1900 to 320 by 1939. All these safety measures and others contributed to dock deaths falling from 115 a year in 1899 to 69 a year in 1939.
Today’s safety initiatives at sea often echo the work of those safety pioneers in the early 20th century. Together in Safety, a consortium of companies dedicated to improving safety in the maritime sector, suggests a three-step safety process – assess the situation, act to improve, appraise the progress – which replicates the work of those early legislators and inspectors.
Together in Safety’s clear and succinct golden safety rules show how to mitigate the risks of maritime work, including working over water and entering enclosed spaces.
What’s more, Lloyd’s Register Foundation – a charity that helps to protect life and property at sea, on land, and in the air – is undertaking work to “assure the safety of people as the ocean economy grows” as part of its Global Maritime Trends 2050 Research Programme.
Two million seafarers face daily dangers to keep the global supply chain operating smoothly. Doing more to highlight their safety will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the challenges they face. This, in turn, should lead to better safety procedures and practices to save lives at sea.
Guy Collender was commissioned and paid to research the history of dock safety in the UK for Hindsight Perspectives for a Safer World – a collaboration between History and Policy and Lloyd’s Register Foundation. He is currently employed by the University of Portsmouth on the ‘Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green’ research project, which is funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Colin Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Political Communications, Nottingham Trent University
Vladimir Putin has spoken several times about using nuclear weapons since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, the initial attention and concern that global news media gave to Putin when he first spoke on the issue in September 2022 seemed to have largely dissipated over the past two years of conflict, perhaps because of the frequency with which he has threatened to resort to use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Now Putin has issued his strongest threat yet, saying that Russia would use nuclear weapons against any country attacking it, even with conventional weapons. This statement appears to be intended to influence the debate happening at the United Nations, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to persuade his country’s western allies to allow Ukraine to use the weapons they have provided against targets deep within Russia itself.
This has been a “red line” hitherto that Ukraine’s allies have been unwilling to cross. That may be about to change though and Russia’s reaction has been to reiterate a nuclear response.
For those interested in the study of propaganda, Putin’s threats appear to have moved from what American media scholar Dan Hallin called the “sphere of legitimate controversy”, where the validity of an utterance is urgently debated by journalists, politicians and academics, into the “sphere of consensus”, where there is broad agreement about the meaning of the message. This generally results in it receiving less attention.
To believe that Putin is not serious about using nuclear weapons is a dangerous assumption to make. But it provides a good opportunity to examine the political and public relationship with nuclear weapons in more detail.
The psychology of nuclear threat
Most adults know of the existence of nuclear weapons and understand the consequences of their use. Very few are simply ignorant of them or their immense power. But global annihilation is too overwhelming to think about other than fleetingly. As a result we tend to focus on less drastic futures.
These regular denials and self-deceptions affect political outlooks though. Every so often the leader of a nuclear-armed country is asked by a journalist or another politician about their readiness to press the nuclear button. They always say “yes”. When this question is asked in front of an audience there is usually enthusiastic applause.
This response – applauding an individual politician’s willingness to bring about the end of the world – is perhaps the most compelling evidence of the duality that the threat of nuclear war exists within. Rather than perceiving such a response as the worrying sign that a maniac has somehow manoeuvred their way into high office and should be immediately removed, the voter perceives the utterance as a signifier of leadership strength.
Psychologically, it can be argued that the applause actually represents an outpouring of relief that this mass self-deception can continue.
‘Fear propaganda’ and confirmation bias
During the cold war, official propaganda placed great emphasis upon threat and preparedness for nuclear attack. The BBC film Threads first aired 40 years ago in September 1984 and depicted the aftermath of a nuclear strike. It was responsible for great alarm among the British public at a time when news media, movies and even official literature were also focused upon the threat of nuclear war.
Between 1974 and 1980, the UK government issued a booklet entitled Protect and Survive, accompanied by short films. The BBC, in its public service role, also ran documentary programming including a 1980 edition of Panorama called If The Bomb Drops. While US secretary of state Henry Kissinger’s 1957 study Nuclear War and Foreign Policy caused alarm for arguing that small-scale nuclear war using “battlefield” weapons might be possible.
Cold war communications like these served to focus the public mind towards the threat of nuclear attack above all other fears. And perhaps, at that time, they were right to do so. But more than 30 years have now passed since the end of the cold war and the emphasis within what is known as “fear propaganda” now focuses on other threats, such as extremism, pandemics and migration.
As such, Putin’s nuclear threats provide propaganda analysts like myself with a case study about the important role played by fear propaganda in determining what people are scared of. If taken within the wider history of the fear of nuclear holocaust, it is clear that political leaders cannot rely on their words alone to be taken seriously. They require a wider supportive propaganda environment – like the atmosphere created at the height of the cold war.
Putin the ‘madman’
Questions around how to understand Putin’s nuclear attack threats ought to be positioned as the latest in a long(ish) line of world leaders who have tried to convince global publics of their readiness to commit nuclear genocide.
Richard Nixon, for example, used what was referred to as “madman” tactics when trying to convince people of his readiness to push the button. Interestingly, the more recent depictions of Putin, Kim Jong-un and other authoritarian leaders as madmen by western tabloids can actually helps them by playing down the fact of their inferior military capabilities when compared to those of the Nato allies.
Don’t think for a moment though that any of this discussion of propaganda increases or decreases the actual threat posed by nuclear weapons. Indeed, there exists a degree of confirmation bias among politicians, journalists and other public commentators that because nuclear war did not happen during the cold war, it is unlikely to happen now. But this can’t be guaranteed. It may be that these conclusions are mistakenly based upon the intensity of the propaganda environment – not the actuality of the threat posed.
To this end, it ought to be remembered that the ability to press the button sits well within the capacity of the sane human mind. US president Harry S. Truman pushed the button in 1945. He was then given detailed reports of the death and destruction that his decision caused to Hiroshima. Then he pushed the button again to annihilate Nagasaki.
Colin Alexander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Government funding for two leading cultural projects in Derby has been secured, paving the way for the restoration of the historic Guildhall Theatre, and Derby Theatre’s redevelopment project.
Sign-off of £20 million of UK Government funding, which was put on hold when the General Election was called, has now been confirmed by the Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government (MCHLG).
Partners Derby City Council, the University of Derby and Derby Theatre will now work to develop their plans for the two buildings.
Half of the funding, £10 million, will go towards bringing the Grade II listed Guildhall Theatre back into use. Further funding has been allocated from the Council’s capital budget, and opportunities for match funding are being explored.
Councillor Nadine Peatfield, Leader of Derby City Council and Cabinet Member for City Centre, Regeneration, Strategy and Policy, said:
It is fantastic news that this much-needed funding has been secured for our city. Now we can look towards restoring one of our historic buildings and create more space for community-led arts groups to perform right in the city’s cultural heart.
The other half of the funding will go towards a new accessible and flexible studio theatre adjoining the current building at Derby Theatre. In addition, a new Learning and Research Hub will develop further the undergraduate and postgraduate offer to study theatre in a professional setting and give more space to Derby Theatre’s expanding community programme.
Professor Kathryn Mitchell CBE DL, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby, said:
We are delighted that plans to develop Derby Theatre are progressing forwards.
The Theatre plays a vital role in the creative and cultural ecology of our city and is a key part of our university. As a professional, producing and learning theatre, it provides our students with a unique and valuable opportunity to study alongside professionals.
We are fully committed to supporting Derby Theatre and the regeneration of our city and look forward to continuing to work with partners on this project.
Sarah Brigham, CEO and Artistic Director of Derby Theatre said:
These new facilities will enable us to expand and embed our community programmes into the heart of the theatre, become a hot house for artistic talent in the city and develop work which suits a more intimate setting. At a difficult time for artists and cultural venues, we are delighted by this vote of confidence in Derby Theatre.
Sciences Po’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) programme centralises initiatives relating to the study and research on this region. On 26 September, a one-day launching event was organised on the topic of the wars in the Middle East and their repercussions on the MENA societies.
As an interdisciplinary and cross-cutting structure, the main mission of the MENA programme is to promote, coordinate, and enhance the institution’s activities relating to the Middle East and North Africa. By strengthening academic, scientific and cultural collaborations with partner universities, the programme supports student work at all levels (bachelor, master, doctorate), while creating a unique space for dialogue between researchers, artists and civil society members, thereby fostering an enriched understanding of the region.
Interview with the programme’s two co-directors: Léa Albrieux, in charge of the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, the Gulf, and Pakistan at the International Affairs Office, and Bayram Balci, researcher at the Center for International Studies (CERI).
Can you tell us about your background and your interest in the Middle East and North Africa area?
We both studied the Middle East and North Africa as part of our studies and spent many years there. Our interest also stems from the fact that this region, its conflicts, but also its culture – including its cuisine – are present in our daily lives in France and even in Europe. So the desire to understand this region, whose conflicts have repercussions that go far beyond its borders, played a central role in our decision to focus on it. This area also forms a bridge between several continents, which makes it all the more interesting to explore collaborations with Sciences Po’s other regional programmes, covering Africa and South Asia.
What are the major contemporary challenges facing the region, and how does the new programme intend to tackle them?
The main challenge is to find a way back towards peace, stability, and democracy, which go hand in hand. As the cradle of three great religions, but also of several great cultures and civilisations, the region has been constantly confronted, since its emergence from colonial domination, with conflicts of varying intensity. Those security and political challenges regularly call into question the progress that has been made. Our programme is humble; it does not claim to resolve the tensions in the region concerned. Contributing to analyse and understand them, through research and teaching, would be our first step.
Can you explain your vision and ambitions as co-directors of the programme?
This structure gathers the diverse people who study and work on the region within Sciences Po’s departments, research centres, campuses, as well as its undergraduate and graduate schools. Its mission is to support and highlight all the institution’s scientific and educational activities and partnerships relating to the MENA area. To this end, we plan to develop a variety of activities combining teaching, research, and partnerships, as well as actions relating to the arts and culture of this region.
What topics will be highlighted at the launch event on 26 September?
Although the aim of our programme is not to comment on every event that shakes the region, the event on 26 September will be devoted essentially to the attack of 7 October 2023 and its effects on Middle Eastern societies. The unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel plunged the Middle East into a new phase of war. While this renewed violence is having profound effects on the regional balance, it is also having major consequences for local societies, in Israel and Palestine, but also in neighbouring countries. This conference will shed a light on this internal and local dimension of the ongoing conflict.
Sciences Po & MENA
Sciences Po has particularly strong ties to the vast region stretching from North Africa to Iran. This is reflected in its 35 institutional partnerships across 12 countries, and in a rich research output: with around 20 researchers as well as 20 PhD students and postdocs specialising in the area, Sciences Po is one of the leading European universities for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. The region is also present in academic programmes, for example through the Mediterranean-Middle East minor on the Menton undergraduate campus.
If 16 nationalities in the MENA region are represented within our student body, Sciences Po hosts about 700 students from the region every year. Meanwhile, about 120 Sciences Po students study abroad and 120 are on an internship in the region every year. At the end of their studies, 5% of our recent graduates employed abroad work in the area.
Cover image caption: Doha, Qatar, mars 2019. (credits: Jaanus Jagomägi / Unsplash)
LEICESTER’S libraries are marking Black History Month this October with two free cultural events and plenty of suggestions for great books by Black authors.
Grenadian author and poet Merle Collins will be at the Central Library on 15 October to talk about her life and work.
Her latest book, Ocean Stirrings – which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political fiction – will be available for sale after the event.
Admission to both events is free of charge but places can be booked in advance by contacting the library on 0116 454 0290 or central-library@leicester.gov.uk
Assistant city mayor Cllr Vi Dempster said: “Black History Month is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about Black history, music, culture and art.
“Throughout October, our libraries will be celebrating the work of Black authors and helping to bring Black history to life for visitors for all ages.
“There are lots of themed events taking place at our libraries, including crafts for children and a ‘Book Detectives’ treasure hunt.
“Pop into your local library or download an eBook or audiobook from our OverDrive page and discover an author you’ve never discovered before – and mark Black History Month with a great book.”
A list of titles suitable for children, teens and adults has been specially curated by library staff to mark Black History Month.
David Olusoga’s Black and British and Barack Obama’s Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters are two of the books on the children’s list, while Kamala Harris’s autobiography The Truths We Hold: An American Journey and Troy Jackson’s biography of Martin Luther King, Becoming King, are on the list of suggested reading for adults.
The list of themed titles for Black History Month can be viewed at Leicester Libraries’ OverDrive page at leicesteruk.overdrive.com
Events and activities taking place at Leicester Libraries can be found here
Opal 22’s exhibition Black Lives is on display at Highfields Library until 31 October, while other events taking place in Leicester to mark Black History Month include an exhibition featuring portraits of 100 Black women with connections to Britain and Ireland, led by Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, and an evening of live music at the African Caribbean Centre.
On September 26, 2024, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the appointment of two new representatives to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC).
BiographiesMr. Michael CarrollRepresentative for Alberta
Dr. Michael Carroll is a historian of twentieth-century diplomacy, specializing in Canadian-American foreign relations, United Nations peacekeeping, and Canadian history. He holds a Master of Arts (History) from Carleton University and a PhD (History) from the University of Toronto. He has been Chair of the Department of Humanities at MacEwan University since 2019, where he has taught since 2007. He previously taught at the University of Victoria and Seiwa University in Japan.
Dr. Carroll has a special interest in public history and has devoted over twenty years to the recording and preservation of oral histories. The collegial governance at MacEwan University has also afforded him the opportunity to participate actively on university and community committees, as well as on committees serving the broader historical profession. He is the author of numerous publications, including Pearson’s Peacekeepers: Canada and the United Nations Emergency Force, 1956-1967.
“Canada’s history is anything but boring: from extraordinary exploits that inspire us to cases of collective shame from which we must learn, and everything in between. I am honoured to represent Alberta and excited to be part of the effort to make our nation’s history accessible and alive for all Canadians.”
Mr. Michael CarrollMember, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Alberta
Ms. Karen AirdRepresentative for British Columbia
Ms. Aird is a member, through her mother, of the Saulteau First Nation in northeastern British Columbia, and now resides in Kamloops. Since 2018, she has been the Heritage Manager with the First Peoples Cultural Council, a program she developed from the ground up that provides grants, resources, research and training to First Nations in British Columbia.
Ms. Aird began her career as an archaeologist, overseeing large-scale archaeological projects. She later owned a consulting firm specializing in cultural heritage management. In 2012, she co-founded the National Aboriginal Heritage Circle and served as its president for two terms.
Her experience includes participation in national and international conferences, high-level government meetings and negotiations, and community-based cultural heritage research. She has served on several boards, such as the Royal BC Museum and the Parks Canada Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Advisory Circle.
Ms. Aird holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria and a master’s degree in cultural heritage management from Athabasca University.
“Canada has a rich and varied history, etched in the landscapes, events and people of the past. As a representative of British Columbia, I am honoured to join the committee to support the recognition and commemoration of our collective heritage.”
Ms. Karen AirdMember, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, British Columbia
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.
In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby.
The finding is confounding researchers searching for an explanation. “We don’t know what’s going on, but it’s just a very exciting finding,” said lead author Alec Lessing of Stanford University. “This means there’s something missing from our understanding of how black hole jets interact with their surroundings.”
A nova erupts in a double-star system where an aging, swelled-up, normal star spills hydrogen onto a burned-out white dwarf companion star. When the dwarf has tanked up a mile-deep surface layer of hydrogen that layer explodes like a giant nuclear bomb. The white dwarf isn’t destroyed by the nova eruption, which ejects its surface layer and then goes back to siphoning fuel from its companion, and the nova-outburst cycle starts over again.
Hubble found twice as many novae going off near the jet as elsewhere in the giant galaxy during the surveyed time period. The jet is launched by a 6.5-billion-solar-mass central black hole surrounded by a disk of swirling matter. The black hole, engorged with infalling matter, launches a 3,000-light-year-long jet of plasma blazing through space at nearly the speed of light. Anything caught in the energetic beam would be sizzled. But being near its blistering outflow is apparently also risky, according to the new Hubble findings. Download this image
The finding of twice as many novae near the jet implies that there are twice as many nova-forming double-star systems near the jet or that these systems erupt twice as often as similar systems elsewhere in the galaxy.
“There’s something that the jet is doing to the star systems that wander into the surrounding neighborhood. Maybe the jet somehow snowplows hydrogen fuel onto the white dwarfs, causing them to erupt more frequently,” said Lessing. “But it’s not clear that it’s a physical pushing. It could be the effect of the pressure of the light emanating from the jet. When you deliver hydrogen faster, you get eruptions faster. Something might be doubling the mass transfer rate onto the white dwarfs near the jet.” Another idea the researchers considered is that the jet is heating the dwarf’s companion star, causing it to overflow further and dump more hydrogen onto the dwarf. However, the researchers calculated that this heating is not nearly large enough to have this effect.
“We’re not the first people who’ve said that it looks like there’s more activity going on around the M87 jet,” said co-investigator Michael Shara of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “But Hubble has shown this enhanced activity with far more examples and statistical significance than we ever had before.”
Shortly after Hubble’s launch in 1990, astronomers used its first-generation Faint Object Camera (FOC) to peer into the center of M87 where the monster black hole lurks. They noted that unusual things were happening around the black hole. Almost every time Hubble looked, astronomers saw bluish “transient events” that could be evidence for novae popping off like camera flashes from nearby paparazzi. But the FOC’s view was so narrow that Hubble astronomers couldn’t look away from the jet to compare with the near-jet region. For over two decades, the results remained mysteriously tantalizing.
Compelling evidence for the jet’s influence on the stars of the host galaxy was collected over a nine-month interval of Hubble observing with newer, wider-view cameras to count the erupting novae. This was a challenge for the telescope’s observing schedule because it required revisiting M87 precisely every five days for another snapshot. Adding up all of the M87 images led to the deepest images of M87 that have ever been taken.
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In a surprise finding, astronomers, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of M87, a huge galaxy 54 million light years away, seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory.NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris
Hubble found 94 novae in the one-third of M87 that its camera can encompass. “The jet was not the only thing that we were looking at — we were looking at the entire inner galaxy. Once you plotted all known novae on top of M87 you didn’t need statistics to convince yourself that there is an excess of novae along the jet. This is not rocket science. We made the discovery simply by looking at the images. And while we were really surprised, our statistical analyses of the data confirmed what we clearly saw,” said Shara.
This accomplishment is entirely due to Hubble’s unique capabilities. Ground-based telescope images do not have the clarity to see novae deep inside M87. They cannot resolve stars or stellar eruptions close to the galaxy’s core because the black hole’s surroundings are far too bright. Only Hubble can detect novae against the bright M87 background.
Novae are remarkably common in the universe. One nova erupts somewhere in M87 every day. But since there are at least 100 billion galaxies throughout the visible universe, around 1 million novae erupt every second somewhere out there.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
In a new study, a team of U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers suggests that 4 billion years ago, plate tectonics likely looked closer to what we experience today than previously thought. The teampublished its findingsin theProceedings of the National Academy of Science.
The team studied the mineral zircon from two of the oldest pieces of intact crust — dating 4.0 to 2.7 billion years old — and discovered that ancient plate tectonics, or how the continents move around and interact with each other, was likely just as diverse as it is today.
“Plate tectonics makes our planet uniquely dynamic on a solar system scale,” said Emily Mixon, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “It has been hypothesized that because plate tectonics is important for moving carbon and water around on long time scales, it might be important for how life evolved on Earth.”
Credit: Emily E. Mixon
A cathodoluminescence (CL) image of growth zoning in a 3.75 Ga zircon from the Acasta Gneiss Complex (NW Territories, Canada).
Moving continents are destructive — crustal rocks are destroyed and recycled. To reveal the ancient processes behind tectonics, the researchers studied zircons, which are physically durable and resistant to chemical alterations.
More specifically, they studied zircons in the 3.9 – 2.7-billion-year-old Saglek-Hebron Complex and 4.0 – 3.4-billion-year-old Acasta Gneiss Complex and found that instead of a linear progression of tectonic styles, from volcanic lavas and magmas pushing down crust into the mantle followed by plates colliding into each other and pushing oceanic crust down to the mantel, many different styles coexisted, just as they do today.
“Understanding how tectonics worked early in Earth history is key for identifying when and how we got the styles of modern tectonics we see today, and how these styles might be expected to look early in planetary development for other possibly habitable planets,” Mixon said.
On Sept. 9 and 10, scientists and engineers tested NASA’s LEMS (Lunar Environment Monitoring Station) instrument suite in a “sandbox” of simulated Moon regolith at the Florida Space Institute’s Exolith Lab at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Lunar regolith is a dusty, soil-like material that coats the Moon’s surface, and researchers wanted to observe how the material would interact with LEMS’s hardware, which is being developed to fly to the Moon with Artemis III astronauts in late 2026.
Designed and built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, LEMS is one of three science payloads chosen for development for Artemis III, which will be the first mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface since 1972.
The LEMS instrument package can operate both day and night. It will carry two University of Arizona-built seismometers to the surface to perform long-term monitoring for moonquakes and meteorite impacts.
Image credits: NASA/UCF/University of Arizona Behind the Scenes of a NASA ‘Moonwalk’ in the Arizona Desert
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Uses Iceland Terrain for Lunar Training
On September 26, 2024, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the appointment of two new representatives to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC).
Biographies Dr. Michael Carroll Representative for Alberta
Dr. Michael Carroll is a 20th-century diplomatic historian specializing in Canadian and American foreign relations, United Nations peacekeeping and Canadian history. He holds a Master of Arts (History) from Carleton University and a Ph.D. (History) from the University of Toronto. He has been Chair of the Department of Humanities at MacEwan University since 2019, where he has taught since 2007. He previously taught at the University of Victoria and Seiwa University in Japan.
Dr. Carroll has a special interest in public history and has been engaged in recording and preserving oral histories for over twenty years. Collegial governance at MacEwan has also provided him with the opportunity to serve extensively on academic and community committees, as well as those serving the wider historical profession. He is the author of numerous publications, including Pearson’s Peacekeepers: Canada and the United Nations Emergency Force, 1956-1967.
“The history of Canada is anything but boring: from exploits of greatness that inspire to instances of collective shame from which we must learn, and everything in-between. I am honoured to represent Alberta and thrilled to be part of the efforts to help make our nation’s history accessible and come alive for all Canadians.”
Dr. Michael Carroll Member, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Alberta
Ms. Karen Aird Representative for British Columbia
Ms. Karen Aird is a member of Saulteau First Nations in northeast B.C. through her mother and now resides in Kamloops. Since 2018, she has been the Heritage Manager with the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, a program she developed from the ground up that provides grants, resources, research and training for B.C. First Nations.
Ms. Aird began her career as an archaeologist, overseeing large-scale archaeology projects. She then owned a consulting firm specializing in cultural heritage management. In 2012, she co-founded the National Indigenous Heritage Circle and served as president for two terms.
Her experience includes participation in national and international conferences, high-level government meetings and negotiations, and community-based cultural heritage research. She has served on several boards, such as the Royal BC Museum and Parks Canada’s Cultural Heritage Indigenous Advisory Circle.
Ms. Aird completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Victoria and has a Master’s Diploma in cultural heritage management from Athabasca University.
“Canada has a rich and diverse history etched into the landscapes, events, and people of the past. As the B.C. representative, I am honoured to join the committee to support the recognition and commemoration of our collective heritage.”
Ms. Karen Aird Member, Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, British Columbia
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
The State University of Management held a business game “IT – hands and eyes of the engineer of the future” for schoolchildren of grades 10-11 as part of the Advanced Engineering Schools “RosGeoTech” project of GGNTU.
The meeting was opened by the Head of the Department for Coordination of Scientific Research of the State University of Management, Maxim Pletnev, who introduced the guests to the activities of the RosGeoTech Scientific Research School, which covers such areas as alternative energy, power engineering, oil and gas, autonomous unmanned and robotic innovative systems.
The head of the RosGeoTech PISh, Andrey Luzhetsky, also addressed the participants with a welcoming speech.
As part of the business game, schoolchildren learned the basics of programming, computer science concepts, digital technologies, software, operating systems, and much more. The children also tried their hand at testing and system analysis.
Such events help participants to make an informed choice of specialization and technologies in the future, as well as improve their skills in the chosen direction.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 09/26/2024
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
A press conference dedicated to the opening of the 8th season of the All-Russian Student Olympiad “I am a Professional” – a project of the presidential platform “Russia – a Country of Opportunities” – was held in Moscow. The All-Russian Olympiad is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. This is a large-scale career development platform for students of all fields of study: technical, humanitarian, natural science, pedagogical, agricultural and medical.
In the new season, the Olympiad will traditionally provide young people with a wide range of educational and professional opportunities, and will become a career assistant for each participant. The main theme of the season is “Work and study in Russia”.
The “I am a professional” ecosystem is constantly developing and growing: this year the Olympiad was included in the events of the national project “Youth and Children”, which is aimed at promoting the comprehensive development of the younger generation. “I am a professional” is a kind of challenge, an opportunity to move to a new level. Every year, hundreds of thousands of students join the Olympiad, and for many, participation becomes a good tradition – an educational norm: from year to year, young people complete practice-oriented tasks, improve their results and reach new heights regardless of their social status and region of residence, – said Olga Petrova, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
In the new season, it is planned to expand access to the career portal – a platform where each participant can find a vacancy in the profile of interest – the opportunity to respond will also be available to Olympiad participants who have successfully passed the selection stage. Previously, this function was provided only for project diploma winners and participants in the final stage who showed a non-zero result.
Executive Director of ANO “Russia – Country of Opportunities”, Rector of the Senezh Management Workshop Andrey Betin spoke about the new system of working with diplomas from previous seasons. Points will be counted automatically when summing up the results of the selection stage, participants will only need to select the necessary areas during registration and mark the item with the crediting of diplomas among the options.
In Russia, the need for professionals is enormous — all industries need fresh ideas and people who can implement them. Today is the best time to study and work in Russia, because it is here that the best opportunities open up, the most interesting professional challenges, and therefore career prospects. “I am a professional” has been helping talented students and their potential employers “find each other” for seven seasons already. The largest and most technologically advanced companies in our country are looking for ambitious interns. This is not just an Olympiad, it is a community where you will be supported, where your potential is revealed and where you grow both as an individual and as a highly competent specialist, — shared Andrey Betin.
Every year, the Olympiad grows with new areas, taking into account the needs of students and the prospects of the labor market. In the upcoming season, the project will cover 71 subject areas, and new disciplines such as “Project Management” and “Digital Product Management and Innovation” will be presented.
Today we are opening the 8th season of the Olympiad, a key career navigator that ensures interaction between employers, the academic community and young people. The best companies in Russia are showing great interest in our participants, seeking to fill their teams with promising personnel even before they graduate from universities and enter the labor market. The Russian education system, science and industry are aimed at achieving leadership, and the new national projects initiated by the country’s president provide an opportunity for the realization of the potential of each active student, and the Olympiad participants are direct proof of this, – shared the head of the All-Russian Student Olympiad “I am a Professional” Valeria Kasamara.
During the press conference, an agreement was signed between the All-Russian Student Olympiad “I am a Professional” and the “Mendeleev Map” project.
Two large-scale projects for students are starting to work together to pave new paths for the development of our country’s youth and to accumulate efforts for the common good. “I am a professional” makes a significant contribution to the popularization of science among young people. I am sure that the capabilities of the “Mendeleev Map” will help students in their profession, in preparation for Olympiad assignments, and in self-development, – believes the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, curator of the “Mendeleev Map” project Alexander Mazhuga.
Participation in the Olympiad is a great opportunity to test your knowledge and skills, make new acquaintances, and decide on a career direction. Such competitions develop critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to work in a team. St. Petersburg Polytechnic University traditionally organizes several areas in the “I am a professional” Olympiad. Last season, our university entered the TOP-3 universities in St. Petersburg in terms of the number of diploma winners. I wish good luck to all participants of the new season! Let me remind you that the winners of the Olympiad receive additional points when entering a master’s and postgraduate program, – noted Vitaly Drobchik, Advisor to the Rector’s Office of SPbPU, organizer of the Olympiad at the Polytechnic University.
The Olympiad provides a wide range of career support opportunities: project diploma holders can take advantage of benefits when entering the next level of education, get the opportunity to do an internship and start their professional career with leading employers in Russia. Cash prizes of up to 300 thousand rubles are provided for medalists.
The qualifying round of the Olympiad will be held from November 15 to December 1. The final stage of the competition will be held from February to April 2025. The results of the Olympiad will be announced in May 2025.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering –
Mikhail Laletin
Mikhail Laletin, a second-year student at the Faculty of Forensic Science and Law in Construction and Transport at SPbGASU, has served in the 76th Division of the 104th Airborne Assault Regiment of the Airborne Forces in the Special Military Operation Zone. Today, he is getting a higher education and does not rule out that after graduation he will continue to serve as an officer.
“Higher education provides knowledge and advantages not only in the civilian sphere, but also in the army. A person with higher education is an officer. I am getting a sought-after specialty at a prestigious university and I do not rule out that after graduating from the university I will continue military service. Because until the goals of the SVO are achieved, I cannot be calm about my future and the future of our people, our Fatherland,” says Mikhail.
Mikhail not only knew that there was such a profession as defending the Motherland, but also looked closely at it: he wanted to enroll in a military school. But then he decided to get a civilian specialty. He recalls how in 2020, as an applicant, he and his friends chose SPbGASU. First of all, the guys evaluated the university from a practical point of view: the university is known for its high quality of education, affordable tuition fees, demand for graduates in the labor market, and convenient location. But everyone made the choice of faculties in accordance with their interests.
“History and politics are topics that have always interested me. Jurisprudence is important in matters of politics. In addition, I continued the dynasty – my mother and sister graduated from law school. Having received a diploma, perhaps in the future I will get a second higher education – in history,” adds Mikhail.
In 2022, when the SVO began, he volunteered. He says there were good reasons for that. First of all, he is a patriot and knows the history of his country well.
“I cannot remain indifferent to how they are trying to rewrite our history from the outside and how the ideology of Nazism is spreading. I stand for traditional values and want to live in a society in which a child has a mother and father, and not parents number one and two. They want to break up our country, divide it, as they did with the Russian Empire and the USSR. Therefore, we must achieve our goals in the SVO. For us, Russians, this is literally a matter of life and death. I am concerned about my fate, the fate of Russia and its people, so I am ready to make my own contribution to its defense,” said Mikhail.
He recalls how he, a young man from civilian life, was surprised by the attitude of the fighters, how they maintained their fighting spirit even in the most difficult situations. It was here that Mikhail fully felt such a sincere attitude towards each other and truly understood what military brotherhood is.
“At the front, the line between superior and subordinate, between commanders and soldiers is erased. Here we are all like brothers, everyone is ready to lend a shoulder to another at any moment, both during a combat mission and in any situation. This is the strength of our army,” Mikhail concluded.
Other materials of the project “Scientific Regiment”
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Headline: Manufacturing That Returns to Nature—In Pursuit of “Nature Positive”
The Panasonic Group is promoting a long-term environmental vision, Panasonic GREEN IMPACT (PGI). Complementing initiatives for carbon neutrality and circular economy, Panasonic Holdings Corporation (PHD) is also investing in the nature positive* economy, promoting research and development with green transformation (GX) as a pillar of its growth strategy. In August 2024, Dr. Naoki Adachi, CEO of Response Ability, Inc. and Executive Director of the Japan Business Initiative for Biodiversity (JBIB), sat down with Tatsuo Ogawa, PHD Executive Officer and Group CTO, for a dialogue on the importance of corporate initiatives for nature positive, what the Panasonic Group should be aiming for, and examples of nature positive initiatives within the Group.
* Nature Positive: halting and reversing biodiversity loss
Why corporate commitments to nature positive matter
The session began with Dr. Adachi explaining why biodiversity is critical to human economic activity:
The global target agreed to at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15) in December 2022 is referred to as “nature positive.” With 2020 as the base year, the goal is to stop biodiversity loss and put it on a recovery track by 2030 and to fully restore our ecosystems by 2050.
Climate change, resource cycles, and biodiversity are all “nature” issues. Ecosystem services—regulating, supplying, cultural, and infrastructure functions—have yielded a variety of benefits to humans but are breaking down under the burden of human economic activity. Biodiversity is “natural capital.” We must acknowledge that our lives and business activities depend on biodiversity—and that if we negatively impact biodiversity, then that natural capital will disappear and human economic activity will no longer be possible.
Dr. Naoki Adachi
The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review, a report commissioned by the UK Treasury and published in 2021, states that “the economy is only one part of the environment (biosphere).” Along with this awareness is the importance of utilizing nature to solve problems in the future—and to do that, we need to increase the amount of nature.
Companies must hone their technical ability to harness the power and functions of nature and strengthen their managerial skills so they can launch businesses that increase nature.
What nature positive action is required from Panasonic Group?
Ogawa asked Dr. Adachi about the direction the Group should take in its nature positive efforts, and shared his own thoughts on the realization of nature positive from a corporate perspective.
Conversation between CTO Tatsuo Ogawa and Dr. Naoki Adachi
Ogawa: The Panasonic Group’s nature positive initiative is just getting started. What direction should we be taking?
Dr. Adachi: It’s wonderful that you are broadly disclosing the Group’s impact on nature in the Sustainability Data Book and other publications. I think you can find some clues by reviewing your impact not only within the Group but also across your supply and value chains.
Ogawa: As a company, our perspective tends to be limited to things that have a direct impact on our business today. Based on our firm understanding of “the concept that biodiversity underlies all economic activity,” we will thoroughly promote our circular economy initiative. By expanding our perspective to the entirety of nature and the planet, we believe that we will be able to create new relationships with partner companies.
Dr. Adachi: In the coming age of nature positivity, a new market will emerge. I think it would be a good idea to take another look at nature, to make good use of nature to solve problems, and to be conscious of the upfront investment that will be required.
Specific initiatives for becoming nature positive
The Panasonic Group has multiple initiatives under way to develop and commercialize technologies and realize a nature positive economy, driven by the passion of employees who want to make a positive impact on the environment.
Let’s take a closer look at three initiatives:
Bio CO2 Transformation technology “Novitek”
Bio CO2 Transformation technology uses atmospheric CO2 as the main source to produce a component that stimulates plant growth by harnessing photosynthetic microorganisms. Expected to be commercialized as “Novitek” by the end of FY2025, it can promote decarbonization while stimulating plant growth and increasing crop yields.
[Related Article] Panasonic in Numbers: Bio CO₂ Transformation Technology
Left: Biomolecules are diluted by a factor of 500 and then applied to the leaves of crops Right: A single application of Novitek to the spinach on the left increased yield by 40 percent compared to untreated spinach on the right.
Seiji Kojima, Green Innovation Center, PHD Technology Division
Novitek developer Seiji Kojima of the PHD Technology Division had this to say:
Kojima: We sought a dual vision of reducing environmental burden and creating economic value. When working with nature, the idea is to chain and amplify value in multiple stages, leveraging the power of nature at each stage.Bio CO2 Transformation starts with atmospheric CO2. Even when crops are being sprayed, the system seeks to improve productivity by making use of atmospheric CO2. Depicting this kind of value chain and amplification structure for initiatives that focus on the environment and nature is important.
2-step plan to reduce environmental burden and create economic value (value chain/amplification)
Restoring regional flora—Kusatsu Factory “Forest of Coexistence”
The Forest of Coexistence covers 13,000 m2 at Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic)’s Kusatsu Factory of in Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture and is positioned as an important green space under Panasonic’s Ecological Network Concept, which seeks to contribute to local biodiversity while preserving the landscape.
The overview of the Panasonic Kusatsu Factory and the Forest of Coexistence
Takahiro Nakano, from the General Affairs Department of Panasonic’s Living Appliances and Solutions Company, manages the Forest of Coexistence and explains its significance:
Nakano: When founder Konosuke Matsushita visited the Kusatsu Factory in 1970, he said, “Kusatsu (Factory) is made with an emotional atmosphere by fully utilizing (or taking advantage of ) nature. In fact, that’s how I want it to be.” Since then, the Kusatsu Factory has been developed as a “park factory” surrounded by greenery and flowers and cherished by local residents, the “most advanced factory in the Orient” that enriches people’s lives.The company introduced the Ecological Network Concept to create a green space in a corner of the site and secure a habitat for wildlife while connecting it with the surrounding green space and waterfront. Known as the “Forest of Coexistence,” development began in October 2011.
The significance and role of the Forest of Coexistence
Nakano: The site includes waterfront, grassland, and woodland and serves as a model for “satoyama” (rural spaces in which humans and nature coexist). A team of experts monitors the restoration status of the satoyama environment. Employees manage green areas, monitor for invasive species, and raise seedlings and plant trees. The number of plant and animal species has recovered from approximately 580 species in 2011 to approximately 840 in 2016.
Plants and animals living in the Forest of Coexistence
Takahiro Nakano, General Affairs Department, Living Appliances and Solutions Company, Panasonic Corporation
Nakano: In October 2023, the Ministry of the Environment certified the area as an “OECM (Other Effective area based Conservation Measure) site” and the site was registered in an international database as one of Japan’s OECMs in August 2024.
Open Innovation “Nawashiro” Initiative
Since April 2023, PHD has been launching our system for nurturing technologies in their seed stage, called “Nawashiro.” Inspired by the Japanese practice of growing rice seedlings, which requires careful attention and effort, “Nawashiro” reflects our commitment to nurturing technologies without cutting corners. It leverages collaboration with academia, providing resources and mentorship to help emerging technologies develop until they are ready for the market, embodying our dedication to fostering innovation. Koichi Matsumura of PHD’s Technology Planning Office, explains:
Matsumura: This initiative is known as “Nawashiro” because it nurtures the seeds of technology. Our goal is to create themes that actively utilize industry-academia collaboration.
Koichi Matsumura, Open Innovation Promotion Department, Technology Planning Office, PHD
Matsumura: Our approach is to study the subject area and then “go into the field for hands-on work.” We analyze data and facts using the knowledge we’ve gained, and then compile the results, hypotheses, and facts we think will be of interest to professors at Kyoto University and other universities with whom we collaborate. Today we are exploring and analyzing the following activities:
Collaboration with Kyoto University: Understanding the Mechanism of Natural CyclesBased on hill-to-ocean linkage studies, we seek to establish sensing, modeling, and actuation methods for material circulation in forests/soil. We collect and analyze data from sensors that have been installed at various sites.
Left: Academics from collaborating universities inspect the Forest of CoexistenceRight: Sound data collection experiment at Kyoto University’s Kamigamo test site. Sound data is analyzed using Panasonic sound analysis technology.
Matsumura: We want to create opportunities to accelerate research by sharing the findings and data obtained here with researchers, including those outside of “Nawashiro.”
At the conclusion of their dialog, Dr. Adachi and Ogawa offered some closing comments.
Dr. Adachi: As part of our efforts to realize nature positivity, we would like you to promote recycling-based manufacturing from the design stage.
Ogawa: In July 2024, the PHD Corporate Technology Sector formulated a “Technology Future Vision” that includes themes that cannot be separated from nature—including energy, water, and food. Nature is the source of everything. Using this as our starting point, we will consider new ways of doing business, of creating new communities, of producing food and new energy, and new ways of recycling resources—all aligned to the theme of “nature.” We will also consider combining nature and AI. By doing so, a new future will open up for the Panasonic Group.
Meteorologists are again predicting a possible La Niña this summer, which means Australia may face wetter and cooler conditions than normal.
It would be the fourth La Niña in Australia in five years, and highlights the need for Australians to prepare for what may be an extreme weather season.
Typically, a La Niña or its counterpart, El Niño, signals its arrival earlier in the year. Signs of this potential La Niña are emerging fairly late. That’s where new research by my colleagues and I may help in future.
La Niña and El Niño explained
La Niña and its opposite phase, El Niño, are created by changes in ocean temperatures in the Pacific Ocean’s equatorial region. Together, the two phenomena are known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation.
The oscillation is said to be in the positive phase during an El Niño and the negative phase during a La Niña. When sitting between the two, the cycle is in neutral phase.
In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put the likelihood at 71%. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is in “watch” mode, predicting a 50% chance of a La Niña weather pattern forming later this year.
La Niña occurs when strengthening winds change currents on the ocean surface, pulling cool water up from the deep.
The winds also cause warm surface waters in the western Pacific and north of Australia, bringing increased rainfall and clouds. This usually means above-average rainfall and cooler temperatures for Australia, particularly in the east and north.
Conversely, an El Niño weather pattern generally brings hotter temperatures across Australia, and less rainfall in the east and north.
The Bureau of Meteorology is in La Niña ‘watch mode’. Bureau of Meteorology
Paths of destruction
La Niña or El Niño events can cause devastation around the world.
The El Niño in 2015–16, for example, caused crops to fail and affected the food security and nutrition of almost 60 million people globally.
In Australia, El Niño events can bring increased risk of drought, bushfires and heatwaves, and water shortages.
Meanwhile, rainfall associated with La Niña conditions can lead to greater crop yield. But particularly heavy rainfall can wash crops away. It also heightens flood risks for some communities.
These far-reaching impacts mean it’s essential to plan ahead when a La Niña or El Niño is on the cards. But predicting these events has always been tricky.
Both types of events usually develop in the Southern Hemisphere autumn, peak in late spring or summer, and weaken by the next autumn. But it’s now late spring without a clear La Niña declaration. Why the delay?
Climate change is one factor. The Bureau of Meteorology says as oceans absorb heat from global warming, it’s harder to spot the specific warming patterns linked to La Niña.
The sheer complexity of the ocean-atmosphere system adds to the difficulty. The computer models used to predict El Niño and La Niña are improving all the time.
But scientists still need more information on deep ocean processes, and how winds affect the oscillation.
Predictions are hardest during the Southern Hemisphere’s autumn. That’s because the cycle then is very susceptible to change – teetering at a point where either a La Niña or El Niño could develop.
That’s why the earliest an El Niño or La Niña can be predicted is usually around May or June.
But new research offers a way to predict the events much earlier – and start preparing if necessary.
Better, earlier forecasts
The study, which I led, assessed the likelihood of La Niña or El Niño events occurring in succession – either in the eastern or central region of the Pacific Ocean.
This distinction is important. For Australia, El Niño and La Niña events peaking in the Central Pacific, close to our continent, have greater impacts here compared to those peaking in the east, closer to South America.
We analysed weather observations, and the sequence of past El Niño and La Niña events, over the past 150 years. We also examined climate models for future changes in transitions between El Niño and La Niña events.
From this, we determined the likelihood of an El Niño or La Niña occurring in two consecutive years.
We found most El Niño events are followed by neutral conditions the next year (with a likelihood of 37–56%).
But La Niña behaves differently. In 40% of cases, a Central Pacific El Niño could follow an Eastern Pacific La Niña. And there is a 28% chance of two consecutive La Niña events in the Central Pacific.
These results allow for more advanced predictions. By identifying patterns in this way, the odds of an El Niño or La Niña can be predicted up to a year in advance.
El Niño or La Niña are the result of complex interactions between winds and sea in the Pacific Ocean. Shutterstock
Looking ahead
So, what does our research suggest for Australia? Will a La Niña develop here this year?
From September last year, Australia experienced a strong Eastern Pacific El Niño. So our findings suggest there is only a 17% chance of La Niña this year.
If the La Niña arrives, it will likely peak in the Central Pacific, potentially affecting Australia rainfall. But overall, any La Niña that develops this late is likely to be weak and relatively short-lived.
Our research also found that as climate change accelerates, the El Niño Southern Oscillation is likely to shift. For example, the odds of two consecutive El Niños peaking in the central Pacific region will likely increase. And we can expect fewer calm, neutral years between events.
We hope our research enables more accurate, long-range forecasts, giving communities additional time to plan and prepare.
Mandy Freund receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Xi stresses cultivating more high-caliber journalism, communication professionals
BEIJING, Sept. 27 — Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, recently replied to a letter from the faculty and students of the Communication University of China on the occasion of its 70th anniversary, extending congratulations and greetings to the faculty, students and alumni of the university.
Xi urged the university to take solid steps to implement the fundamental task of fostering virtues and educating people on the new journey in the new era. He emphasized the importance of focusing on the needs of the press and public communication, highlighting the university’s distinctive features, deepening reform and innovation, and continuously improving its teaching and research capacity, in a bid to cultivate more high-caliber journalism and communication professionals and make new contributions to the development of the Party’s cause concerning public communication and culture.
The predecessor of the university was founded in 1954 as a technical training program of the central administration for broadcasting. In 2004, it changed its name from Beijing Broadcasting Institute to the Communication University of China.
Recently, the faculty and students of the university wrote a letter to Xi, reporting on the achievements of the university in the past 70 years, especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, and expressing their determination to better serve the Party’s work on public communication and culture and to contribute to advancing Chinese modernization.